John Landis Calls Zombies 'The Monster of the 21st Century'

John Landis has given us werewolves, vampires and most recently grave-diggers, so he knows a thing or two about big-screen horror, which is why you should heed his latest words. While promoting his new book 'Monsters in the Movies: 100 Years of Cinematic Nightmares,' the Master of Horror has proclaimed the zombie to be the monster of the 21st century.

As he explained to the LA Times: "Zombies are a real thing. It is part of Haitian voodoo. They would drug these people and bury them alive and use them as slave labor. This is all documented. But what the zombie has become is so interesting."

"They are made from radiation or disease or military experiments.... Even when they become objects of fun, the idea of the living dead is so powerful and it represents so many things," the director went on to say, "Something they use it for all the time, which is increasingly relevant, is chaos, the collapse of society. What is more frightening than anarchy?"

Hard to argue with that logic. With the news becoming inundated with scenes of protests, starting in the hundreds and growing into thousands, the only thing left to happen before America devolves into a full-fledged undead nightmare is one toxic bite from a Sumatran Rat-Monkey.

For more thoughts from Landis on the Invisible Man, Godzilla and all sorts of movie monsters, check out the full interview at Hero Complex.